If Fire Could Freeze, We'd Be Okay
by from-under-the-stingue-tree
Summary: Natsu and Gray are both ridden with unbearable guilt after tragedy strikes, and neither knows if they can be okay anymore. Now they need to rebuild while fighting their own inner demons. tw.
1. Chapter 1

**If Fire Could Freeze, We'd Be Okay**

 **Chapter One**

Gray had a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Natsu had a bottle of beer in his hand. Both were trying to forget, but it wasn't working.

Gray let out a puff of smoke as Natsu raised the bottle to his lips. They wouldn't look at each other – they couldn't. When it came down to it, they were both at fault, and they knew it. And they couldn't stand it.

The guild hall was too quiet. Happy wasn't flying around, following Carla. Juvia wasn't staring at Gray from behind a pillar. Elfman wasn't telling anyone to be a man. Cana wasn't sitting on a table, a barrel pressed to her lips. Mirajane wasn't standing behind the counter. Erza wasn't chowing down on a piece of strawberry cake. Lucy wasn't chatting with Levy at the table. Jet and Droy weren't battling for Levy's affection, getting stared down by Gajeel.

No one was there except Natsu and Gray.

The pink-haired teen slid off of his stool, slamming his empty bottle down on the bar next to the other three that were already there. He stormed past Gray and went behind the counter to fetch a fresh beer. Natsu then jumped back onto his chair and took a long drink.

Gray's cigarette burned out. He pressed the butt into the ash tray and started digging in his pocket to find his pack and a lighter. Finally finding what he was looking for, he put the cigarette to his lips and tried to light it. Nothing. He tried a few more times to no avail. He cursed, not wanting to look at the fire mage. In the state the pink-haired boy was in, Gray was unsure if he could light _just_ a cigarette without burning down what little remained of the guild hall. Gray doubted Natsu could use his magic at all after what happened.

Sighing, the black-haired teen moved his gaze up and to the other boy. "Gimme a light?"

Natsu didn't look up from his fifth bottle of beer. The tense silence was starting to get to him. Just one day had changed them from happiness to whatever they were now. They'd just told everyone that they were dating before the Fantasia parade. Then all went to hell.

Natsu didn't know what they were at with their relationship. They couldn't very well go back to dating like normal, but he wasn't ready to give up on Gray. He couldn't do that. His heart couldn't take that pain on top of everything else.

"Natsu?"

Still nothing. Natsu finished the beer in three huge gulps. Natsu considered getting another, but he was feeling lightheaded. _Maybe that's what I need,_ he thought.

"Gray?" he croaked. "It's our fault."

Gray was quiet for a long time, the urge to break down getting unbearably strong. "Yeah," he whispered, tears gathering in his eyes, "it is."

Steeling his will and barely looking at the ice mage, Natsu snapped his fingers lightly, sending the tiniest spark towards the cigarette in Gray's hand.

The ice wizard was startled at the sudden flame, and he nearly fell backwards, but when he considered it, he wouldn't have minded if Natsu had lost control with that fireball. He probably wouldn't have moved.

Natsu finally got the courage to look into Gray's eyes. What he saw was exactly how he felt.

Defeated. Miserable. Guilty. Useless. Empty.

His eyes quickly averted as he felt the emotions he was trying to drink away surging up. His eyes fell to the bandage that covered Gray's torso. The bandage was wrapped all the way around his stomach and over his chest, covering his Fairy Tail emblem. The most dried blood was exactly where the mark was.

Or used to be.

While the two were in the care of Porlyusica's care, they had shared a room. Although both dipped in and out of consciousness, one of the few times they were both awake at the same time was about four days after Porlyusica took them in. Gray didn't know that Natsu had seen him dragging one of the healer's knives across his emblem enough times to completely destroy it to the point of being unrecognisable.

Gray's physical injuries had been pretty bad. He had a sprained ankle along with two bones broken in his foot, a dislocated shoulder, two fractured wrists, at least three broken ribs, and five nasty slices up the entire length of his back. Along with those, he also had more scratches, bruises, and fresh scars than he could count across his whole body. He received yet another fresh scar on his forehead.

Natsu's were just as bad. Four fingers on his right hand were broken, his left femur was fractured, his left arm was broken in three places, and he also had five slices up the length of his back. He too had a shit-ton of cuts, bruises, and scars. Natsu's bandages covered his whole torso along with a strip covering his right shoulder, also stained with dry blood.

Although their physical injuries would heal sooner or later, neither could keep his sanity much longer. Guilt ate away at their insides, leaving the rivals as mere shells of what they used to be.

The ice wizard looked around. The guild hall was in ruins. Most of the roof had been destroyed. Even more than a week later, Gray could just barely see embers on the few pieces that were still there. The door to the guild was nothing more than a pile of ashes. The wood tables had been nothing more than kindling. In other parts of the guild, the black-haired teen spotted frozen patches. Ice pillars standing on top of piles of ashes were almost completely melted now. The floor was almost entirely frozen, and that was the only thing keeping the building from falling.

When his eyes landed on a patch of ice near the doors, he froze. His head started spinning. _No, dammit._ Gray felt lightheaded as his eyes continued staring at the ice. It was huge – probably seven feet tall, six feet wide, four feet long – and looked completely random. The ice was rough and didn't seem to serve any purpose.

Gray knew its purpose.

He knew what was inside of it.

 _If I had figured it out sooner, maybe it would have been okay._

Memories flooded into his head, louder and faster than before. He started breathing hard, and his heartbeat sped up and increased in volume. His pulse echoed in his head.

Gray didn't feel himself falling until he was on the ground with Natsu kneeling by his side. The pink-haired boy rubbed Gray's still-burning cigarette out on the palm of his hand, dropping the item next to him on the floor.

As Gray sat upright, he gasped in pain all over his torso.

"Gray, just stay there for a minute," Natsu mumbled, not looking the stripper in the eyes. He felt pain in the back of his throat, a breakdown threatening to break loose. Thoughts raced through his head, coming back to one thing: _I can't lose the one person I have left. He's all I have left, dammit!_

After walking behind the counter and grabbing a small bag of ice, a glass of water, and two of the pain pills Porlyusica prescribed, Natsu shrunk back down to his knees next to his friend. "Here," he croaked, staring at the ice-covered wood floor as he handed Gray the glass and the pills. He then took the bag of ice and pressed it gently to his back.

The fire mage realised that the ice was useless to the ice wizard, so he took to inspecting Gray's back. He had to have torn a few stitches, so his back was bleeding through the bandages. "We should get you to Porlyusica."

"No," the boy replied, his mind in a different place.

Gray was vaguely aware that Natsu still kneeled next to him, but terror shot through his entire being as he remembered friends dead all around him.

Gray curled into a ball, unable to control his breathing. He heaved in and out at a dangerously rapid pace. Tears streamed down his face overwhelmingly fast. "It's all my fault. It's all my fault. I killed my friends. What kind of person am I if I kill my own friends? It's my fault that they died. It's all my fault, and now they're not coming back. I'm literal shit. I don't' deserve life. All of my friends are dead but I'm still alive. Why? I killed them. I don't deserve to live. I should die. That way I don't have to keep living like this. It's all my fault…"

Natsu sniffled at Gray's harsh words about himself. "It's not your fault!" Natsu screamed, tears running down his face just as fast as Gray's tears.

Gray stopped rambling, feeling the fire dragon slayer's hand pressed over where his guild mark used to be.

"It's… not your fault." Natsu's hand dropped. " _I'm_ the one who burned them. _I'm_ the one who couldn't control my own magic. _I'm_ the one who ended any chance of our guild surviving. So… please, Gray. Stop blaming yourself. You're only making it harder. You can keep… keep going on with your life. You didn't kill them, so don't think like that. Don't you dare think like that. You need to live, so go. Go find Lyon. Join Lamia Scale. You need to go on with your life, Gray. I can't let you take any of the blame for this. This is all on me, okay? Please, Gray… Live. Don't live for me. Live for Fairy Tail… For… Fairy Tail."

Natsu was shaking so hard that he could barely hear himself speak. "For Fairy Tail…" he whispered.

"No, Natsu!" Gray screamed back at the sniffling boy. "This isn't your fault! Not at all! I'm the one who wanted to do that attack! I'm the one who wanted to put everything on the line to save them, so stop fucking blaming yourself! I didn't listen to you. You knew that it didn't work, and you just did what I deemed to be right. I was fucking wrong, okay? So stop blaming yourself, you flame-brain! Stop! This all falls on me!"

Natsu felt his fragile heart break when he heard Gray call him that. _I guess some things don't change._ Even when the world was falling apart and they had barely spoken in a week, they could still talk like old times, even if it was about who killed everyone else.

The tears wouldn't stop as Natsu clutched onto the ice wizard. "It's both of our faults, alright? We killed our friends, and we can't change it. We're frigging monsters. Just… I can't lose you, too, Gray. I can't lose you."

Gray wanted to scream forever. He wanted to die, because that was the only way he felt he could fix everything he destroyed. He grabbed onto the dragon slayer tightly and didn't let go. "Natsu…"

The two sat there for a long time.

After a while, once all of their tears had run dry, Natsu pulled back. "Gray, I can't lose you. You're all I have left, and if I lose you, I can't live with myself. We're not okay. Neither of us is okay. But maybe the two of us can figure out how to be okay together."

Gray looked at the man he still loved, despite the recent events. He slowly nodded, thinking that it sounded okay.

 _Maybe the two of us can figure out how to be okay together._

* * *

 _A/N: I have decided that I'm going to make this into a multi-chapter story. When I first published this, it was a rushed job, and there were all kinds of inconsistent parts, so now I'm thinking through how I want this to go. Heads up to anyone who wants to follow any story that I make: I go through spurts where I'll write a ton, and then I'll sort of disappear for a million years. Sorry. I hope I'll have the next chapter up today or tomorrow. Maybe._


	2. Chapter 2

**If Fire Could Freeze, We'd Be Okay**

 **Two**

 _The Fantasia parade was over, and girls surrounded the ice mage as he stepped off of his float. "Gray! Gray! Can you make me an ice teddy bear?" a girl shouted._

 _Gray sighed and then faked a smile as he produced and handed the girl the item._

" _Can you make me an ice heart?" "Can you make me an ice castle?" "Can you make me an ice sculpture of Gray-sama?" The last request was obviously Juvia, but Gray produced the items all of the girls begged for without saying much of anything._

 _Eventually, he saw Natsu standing a few feet away from him with his own collection of fangirls (his group also had Romeo amongst them). The dragon slayer puffed words into the night sky. First it was "Fairy Tail" and the guild mark, then it was just "Natsu Dragneel", "Fantasia X794", and "Fire Dragon Slayer Salamander" along with girl shouting to have her name next to Natsu's last name. Gray eventually saw "Lucy Dragneel" painted in flames on the sky._

 _The flame-brain couldn't help but laugh to himself at that one. Of course, he couldn't say the truth out loud. God forbid that that got out._

 _After what seemed like an eternity of entertaining people, the guild started to head back to the guild hall. Gray waited next to a café in downtown, waiting for Natsu to find him. The fire mage showed up and wrapped his arms around Gray's waist and stood on his toes to look into the ice wizard's dark blue eyes._

" _Natsu…" Gray warned. "We're in public. You said you didn't want to tell anyone yet." His eyes darted around nervously. He spotted a few people watching, but not enough to make a fuss over._

 _Natsu grinned and leaned a little bit forward. "I think it is okay now."_

 _Gray glanced around them once more before meeting the dragon slayer's loving gaze. He too smiled before closing the space between their lips. A few seconds later, Gray pulled back. "We should head to the guild."_

" _I think we can wait a little bit longer," Natsu said, once again pressing his chapped lips to Gray's._

 _In the distance, Natsu heard an explosion with his keen ears. Gray seemed to have heard something vaguely, but Gray's hearing was not sharp enough to pick up what the sound was. Natsu suddenly pulled back and placed his right hand on the ice wizard's bare chest. "Gray."_

 _Without another word, the Dragon Slayer took off running in the direction of the sound, Gray close behind without having to be told to follow. He heard vaguely familiar screams._

 _He picked up the pace and didn't slow until he skidded to a stop in front of the Fairy Tail guild hall._

 _He burst through the front door, and his heart stuttered to a stop when his eyes showed him the scene_.

Natsu shot up out of bed, heart pounding and drenched in sweat.

His house was too quiet. Natsu had not even started a fire before he went to bed. The little cottage was silent, and it was driving him insane.

 _You killed your friends._

"No, no, no…" the Fire Dragon Slayer mumbled, trying to drown out the voices that plagued him, making sleep impossible.

" _Natsu-san!"_

His eyes shot open. Natsu's heart felt like it was collapsing inward. He hadn't heard her voice in a long time. She was so innocent, so young. Why did she have to die! Why wasn't he there to save the little sister he never had? Images of blue hair and wind flew across the back of the pink-haired boy's eyelids.

 _Wendy…_ She had just turned fifteen when the attacks happened. She had grown so much since the Nirvana incident. Even just since the Grand Magic Games in X791, she had grown both in maturity and in power. _And now she's not going to grow anymore because I was fucking stupid. I couldn't save her, I couldn't save Lucy, and I couldn't even save Erza. What kind of wizard am I if I can't even protect my comrades?_

All of his friend's dying faces taunted his brain. He heard them speaking, screaming.

" _Natsu! Gray! Come on! We need to go already!"_

" _But Fairy Tail is more fun when we're together, right?"_

He sniffled a few times, trying with everything he had to hold back the tears that were gathering behind his eyelids. Natsu had what felt like a twenty-pound weight sitting in the back of his throat, threatening to release every bit of suppressed emotions that he had if he dared speak or scream.

" _What the hell are you doing, Salamander? Are you just gonna fuckin' sit there, or are you gonna get your shit together and keep living, dipshit? Or are you afraid to live? You're fuckin' afraid to live, aren't you? Get your shit together and get over yourself. You need to keep living, because if you don't, then all of us died for nothing. That'd just prove that you really are weaker than me."_

"Gajeel, I don't want your encouragement! Just fight me if you're gonna be annoying!"

" _I can't fight ya, you moron! I'm fuckin' dead!"_

By now, Natsu had tears upon tears streaming down his face, and there was nothing he could do to stop them. _I know you're dead. I know, dammit, and it's all my fault, okay?_ he mentally screamed back at the Iron Dragon Slayer. _Please… just stop, okay?_

The mage pulled himself in as tight as he could, hugging his knees. He rocked back and forth on his bed, trying to do something – anything – to help the voices inside his head.

* * *

By the time the sun finally made an appearance, Natsu was numb. He didn't hear the voices of his fallen comrades. He didn't feel the mental exhaustion he had been feeling nonstop for four weeks. He didn't feel any emotion. He was empty.

Natsu was still in his little ball come eleven in the morning. He heard a light knock at the front door, but he couldn't bring himself to talk to the person on the other side of the door. The scent of peppermint and cool air tingled in his nose, and he wasn't ready to talk to him yet.

Gray had hardly spoken to him in the weeks following the tragedy. Frankly, neither had even half of an idea what was going on with their relationship. Natsu wasn't sure if he was ready to deal with it yet. He wasn't sure if he could take losing Gray, too. If they didn't talk about it, then it didn't have to seem real.

"Natsu, open up!" the ice wizard sounded defeated.

The fire mage shook his head to himself and pulled himself as tight as he could.

"I'm coming in." The creaky door that had not moved from its latched position in more than a week slid open for a second and then returned to its original spot like nothing had happened. "Natsu?"

Reluctantly, the pink-haired boy lifted his head ever-so-slightly. "Gray," he croaked, which was barely any more than a small burst of air.

Gray didn't look much better than Natsu felt. His droopy eyes were adorned with huge dark circles under his eyes – he must not have slept much in the past few weeks. The dark-haired man's cheeks had sunk in, and his shirtless torso looked unusually thin. Natsu allowed himself to wonder how much Gray had eaten recently, but he didn't ask – it's not like he had any right to based upon _his_ eating habits as of late. And Gray's hair was wilder than usual.

Gray's eyes held no emotion.

"You don't look well."

"Neither do you," Natsu mumbled in response.

"I got a letter earlier that I thought you might want to hear about."

Natsu stared at his bare feet tangled among his bedsheets.

"Someone wants to join Fairy Tail, Natsu."


	3. Chapter 3

**If Fire Could Freeze, We'd Be Okay**

 **Three**

Gray knew that telling Natsu about the girl was a mistake. Frankly, talking to Natsu at all was a bad idea right now, but talking about what happened _next_ was frightening as hell.

When Gray had left his apartment that morning, the chilly autumn air greeted him, and the wind seemed to guide him around town until he was just metres away from the ruins of the guild hall. Standing in front of the broken building was a petite girl. She seemed like she was assessing the rubble. When the girl saw Gray standing behind her, her face lit up.

That only made Gray feel even more terrible. Fairy Tail was always a cheerful guild, and here he was, barely able to pull himself out of bed. Natsu wasn't even able to do that. The girl had the same look in her eyes as Lucy did on the day that she joined Fairy Tail.

The short girl actually looked a lot like Lucy. She had blonde hair that was almost the same shade as the former member's that reached her lower back. On her youthful face were two huge brown eyes and a light blush across her cheeks. She wore a short blue dress that seemed to Gray to just be a super long t-shirt.

"You're Gray Fullbuster!" she exclaimed.

Gray had almost forgotten that pretty much everyone knew _who_ he was, not just that he used to be a member of the destroyed infamous guild, Fairy Tail. His eyes dropped to her bare feet, and the ice wizard tried to force a half smile. "Yeah."

"Well, I'm Lana." The blonde held out her thin hand for Gray to shake. Reluctantly, Gray gently took the hand and gave it a firm shake. "I'm an air wizard. I was… wondering if I might be able… to… join? I'd really love to be a member… of… Fairy Tail."

The black-haired boy's eyes went wide, and he stumbled back a few steps. His heart jumped and beat in double-time. Gray's breathing became irregular as faces danced across his mind, voices shouting in his head. "Wha… What?"

Clearly, Lana knew that the guild was a sensitive subject. Her head dipped down to stare at her own blue-polished toes. "I heard about what happened… Everyone has. I can't even begin to think of how it must affect you and Natsu. I was wondering… are you guys going to keep the guild?"

Gray's right hand drifted to the right side of his chest, and he winced as it brushed over the still-healing scar beneath his shirt. _Neither of us had even considered for a minute what we would do with the guild. We are all that's left, so we just figured that was it for Fairy Tail. I removed my own mark, and I'm sure Natsu did the same by now. What the hell am I supposed to tell her? It's still Fairy Tail… but… Can we do this? Can I do this?_

The ice wizard looked up with pained eyes. Tears threatened to fall, but he couldn't let them yet. "Um… We hadn't… uh… thought about… that." He sniffled back the memories and pain. "I'll… uh, talk to… Natsu… Why don't you meet me… um… here in… four hours?"

The brown eyes sparkled with hope. "Absolutely!" Lana's voice dropped. "Whatever you decide is alright. You don't need to feel pressured to keep going if you don't want to."

"Yeah…" Gray mumbled, walking off towards Natsu's cottage without saying goodbye.

* * *

Natsu knew that Erza and Gramps and everyone else in Fairy Tail would hate them if they turned away this girl who wanted to join.

But he wasn't sure if he could do it.

Still curled into his little ball, Natsu spoke to the shirtless man next to him, voice quivering. "What do you think?"

Gray's gaze dropped to the huge scab on his right pectoral. "Hell if I know, Natsu. I hadn't even thought about the guild in two weeks."

"And we both removed our marks." Their eyes made contact as Natsu continued. "How are we supposed to continue with the guild when I can barely make it through the night on my own? I'm hanging on by a thread, Gray. I don't think I can. I don't even deser-" A single tear fell from the Dragon Slayer's eye as he abruptly cut off the word. "What the hell are we supposed to do? I don't even want to be here, dammit. Wouldn't it all just be better if I were –"

 _Slap._

The fire mage cupped his cheek as Gray glared. "Stop it right fucking now, Natsu. You don't get to die. Even if you don't want to live, you need to. Hell, I don't want to live. But you have to keep fighting. I don't know any other way to say it. Sure, it's our fault that all of our friends are dead. It's our fault that we're alone now. Even if the two of us continuing on is nothing but punishment for killing everyone who's important to us, I'd be okay with that. But I can't give up, and I'm not about to let you either." Gray's voice cracked as he winced with pain in his chest. "I can't lose you, too," he said quietly.

"Gray –"

"Stop! I don't want to hear how badly you hate everything. Trust me, I know. I fucking know how shitty this world is. I know that after that guilt, the only out you can see is the easy way out. I'm still dealing with it. And I stay up every night, and I can't sleep. I've barely slept in four weeks, Natsu. But I know that if I give in, then you're alone, and I can't leave you. So don't you dare. I can't lose you, Natsu!" Gray couldn't even stop himself as he gripped onto Natsu's vest and let his tears fall onto it.

 _I was just trying to tell him that Lana wanted to join, and now it's me talking him out of suicide. It seems like this happens any of the few times we talk. Who am I to talk him into staying alive when I'm seriously considering the very same thing? How did we backtrack so far in just a few weeks? Wasn't it just like three weeks ago that he said, "Maybe we can figure out how to be okay together?" What happened to that? Was he lying? Was he just bluffing to keep himself sane? Cause this sure as hell isn't the same man as the man who said that._

"Gray…"

He couldn't bring himself to look into the Dragon Slayer's eyes. "Natsu."

"I'm sorry."

Pressing his lips into a firm line, the ice-make wizard contemplated whether he should yell at him to stop apologising or to tell him the same. "I'm sorry, too, Natsu," he whispered, choosing the latter.

In a sudden change in mood, Natsu carefully pried Gray's fingers from his vest and used his hand to lift Gray's chin so he could look the black-haired man in the eyes.

 _What the hell just happened?_ Gray thought, averting his eyes to avoid Natsu's intense stare.

"Look at me."

Gray gave the slightest shake of the head, heart still pounding.

Natsu decided to give his friend – he felt pain shooting through his heart at that – a moment. Somehow, something had clicked while Gray was talking to him that maybe Gray needed him as much as he needed Gray. That realisation had shut down whatever self-loathing thoughts that were plaguing his mind. In that moment, Gray's mental health was infinitely more important than his own. He admitted to himself that no matter what was going on, he would probably put almost anyone's well-being before his own. _I just don't want anyone else to feel like this. Especially not Gray._

Gray subconsciously grabbed onto Natsu's vest again, pulling the fire mage closer. Gray then leaned forward, resting his forehead on Natsu's muscular shoulder as he shook in another fit of sobs. He felt a warm arm around his bare shoulder.

The friends sat there for a long time. Gray gently pulled back, shrugging off Natsu's arm from around his shoulders and looking the other wizard in the eyes.

"I really want to try to be okay, Natsu. I don't want to keep living like this. I don't want to keep lying awake at night alone, debating if my best option is to just end it all," Gray admitted quietly. "I can't do it alone."

"I know," Natsu whispered. "I feel the same."

They sat there on Natsu's unmade bed for another long time.

"So what happens now?" Gray asked hoarsely.

"We try to stay alive," the fire wizard replied as if it were obvious. Then, after a few seconds, he added, "And we rebuild and make everyone proud. We may have ruined everything, but the least we can do for them is to stay alive and keep moving forward."

"No matter how hard that is," Gray said.

Natsu allowed the smallest sliver of a smile to creep onto his face. "Then… for Fairy Tail, we have to keep moving. We have to rebuild."

"For Fairy Tail," Gray echoed.

* * *

 _A/N: So there's chapter three. I honestly didn't think I'd get so much positive feedback on this so quickly. I'm actually really proud of this story, that I've already written more than 4,500 words for it, that it has an actual mostly-realistic plot so far. All of the fanfics I have on here are also on my Wattpad, where I have the same username ( WrittenBandNerd). So I hope I might get to writing chapter four soon. Hope you guys are enjoying it so far :)  
-Stephanie_


	4. Chapter 4

**If Fire Could Freeze, We'd Be Okay**

 **Four**

"I take back everything I said. I wanna go home, Gray."

Gray narrowed his eyes at the Dragon Slayer, who had his nose covered by his scarf. "You don't get to turn back on this one, flame-brain. This isn't for us," he reminded Natsu, "this is for our friends."

Sighing, Natsu picked up the pace again and matched Gray's long strides towards town. "How long until you said you'd meet her?"

"We have about an hour and a half. Have you eaten yet?" Gray asked softly. If he didn't know better, he would almost think today was a normal day – that they would go out for lunch, head back to the guild, maybe fight a bit, and then head home like usual.

It wasn't a normal day, though. They were still quite nearly broken. Neither mage was okay, but neither wanted to stay like this. And thus, they found themselves in the centre square of Magnolia, the midday crowd rushing around.

It was a miracle that the town survived. When Fairy Tail was brutally attacked, some parts of the city were destroyed, but since the guild hall was on one side of Magnolia, the city suffered much less damage than it potentially could have. Apparently, the attackers had only one goal, and that was to destroy Fairy Tail. Several buildings in the city had been destroyed, but neither Natsu nor Gray really knew whether it was the attackers or some Fairy Tail mages who fought after the Fantasia parade – either was a likely scenario.

Natsu stared at his feet. "I haven't eaten an actual meal in more than a week," he admitted. "I've just had a few crackers and water here and there."

Gray sighed sadly and then tugged on the black fabric of Natsu's vest. "Come on, we're getting lunch."

Natsu also dared to think it was a normal day. But he knew better. Although Gray was dragging him through town towards a café, Natsu could tell by the empty darkness in Gray's dark blue eyes that the ice mage was forcing himself to be outside as much as he was dragging Natsu. He wanted to be out even less than the pink-haired boy. He was fighting for both of them.

 _If he can, why can't I bring myself to do the same?_ Natsu wondered silently, feeling completely useless and like dead weight. Even in all of the fights that he had had over the years as a working mage where he could do nothing to save his comrades, he didn't feel as useless as he did now. His very existence sort of felt like a waste.

When the pair reached the café, they were shown to a small booth in the back by the young scarlet-haired hostess. Natsu didn't pick up his menu, even after Gray began mulling over the options that the restaurant offered.

Gray peeked over the top of his menu worriedly. "Hey." He set down the paper and laid his hand over Natsu's. "You alright?"

In shame with tears in his eyes, Natsu shook his head, staring at the two hands. "No," he croaked.

"Do you want to go?" the older boy asked.

"No."

Gray smiled sadly. "Alright. Do you want to just share an order of chips and salsa?"

Natsu shrugged his shoulders in defeat. Hell yes, he wanted to go home, but he couldn't allow himself to become more useless than he already was.

The mages did not speak. Gray had told the waiter the order, but after that, both boys were silent. When the chips arrived about fifteen minutes later, each mumbled something along the lines of "thanks" but then returned to uncomfortable silence.

Natsu examined the tortilla chip. It was a typical tortilla chip, so he wasn't sure what he was looking for. He was wondering to himself if he should eat it or not. Based on his eating habits of the past few weeks, he wasn't positive he could keep the chip down. Each day, he had had just a few saltine crackers and a few sips of water, and then he just wouldn't eat for the rest of the day. In comparison to the war in his head, nutrition seemed unnecessary. Anyways, he couldn't even find the ambition to get out of bed; much less eat anything more than a few crackers.

Gray observed the pink-haired wizard as he inspected the chip. Natsu carefully took a small bite off of the tip, chewed slowly, and swallowed with what seemed to be great difficulty. Gray wanted to say something – anything – to help Natsu feel better. But then the voice in the back of his head reminded him for the umpteenth time that the ice mage had no right to give advice or to help his friend when he felt just as bad and had thoughts just as terrifying.

Natsu slowly set the chip down on his plate, a single small munch on it. "So who is this girl?" he tried.

Gray shrugged. "Her name is Lana. I'd guess she's maybe seventeen years old, but she could be younger than that. She said she was an air mage." He paused, not sure whether he should tell the fragile Dragon Slayer. "She looks a lot like Lucy."

Natsu lurched at the name of his friend. His eyes drifted to his hands, which were sitting on the table. They were shaking. "L-Lucy?" the pink-haired boy stammered, breathing becoming irregular and panicked.

 _Shit. What am I supposed to do now?_

Natsu's chest rose and fell rapidly. His eyes were wide and full of fear as he looked at the black-haired mage. "What… what do you mean?" The voice sounded fucking terrified. "Why…" He shook his head and stood, brows creasing together. "Why the hell didn't you tell me? Why the fuck did you tell her _yes?_ " he screamed, disturbing the few other people dining. They looked at the pair with pity and apologies in their eyes.

Gray couldn't stop himself from letting the tears form in his eyes. "Because it's what Fairy Tail wizards do! We don't turn people away! Who on earth would I be if I turned someone away? It would dishonour everything that Gramps and the first master and everyone else worked for! I thought that, even if the two of _us_ aren't members, then maybe someone else could continue with the guild! Goddammit, Natsu! I wanted to honour their memory, okay? I thought you'd be okay with it. We need to put our own issues aside, because everyone that we killed is more important than we are."

Some of the others turned to look at the fire and ice wizards arguing in the quiet room. However, most seemed to know well enough about the recent events with Fairy Tail to not to say anything. It could have been that, but it also could have been that they noticed that both boys were crying.

Natsu's eyes still burned with fury and pain and guilt. His heart still racing, he stood up abruptly, glaring down at the black-haired mage. The tears in his eyes flowed freely. He didn't even try to hide his emotions at this point. It hurt too much for that.

Without saying anything else, the green-eyed wizard stormed out of the café, leaving Gray alone.

* * *

Natsu didn't know where he was going. He blindly stomped through the crowded streets of Magnolia, ignoring the strange looks he got from various people. _Have you never seen a wizard cry before?_ he thought bitterly.

After a few minutes of walking, the mage realised that his legs had taken him to the park by the river. Slowing his pace, he crouched next to the flowing water and observed the face staring back at him.

The face looked defeated. The cheeks were sunken in, and the normally bright eyes were dull and had dark circles below them. The hair on top of the reflection's face was unruly. If it was possible, it seemed as if the mage's hair had responded to his guilt by darkening a few shade to a dark pinkish-red colour. He tried to smile, but the reflection only stretched his face instead of showing happiness, no matter how false it may have been.

Natsu took a deep breath and slowly stood and walked over to the large tree in the middle of the park. Squeezing his eyes shut, he slid down the tree trunk and curled into a ball, the voices of fallen comrades once again plaguing his thoughts.

" _If we're together, there's nothing Fairy Tail wizards can't do!"_

" _I know that even though all my friends might not be here with me now that they're lending me their strength. And that's why I can't lose to you!"_

" _You don't even understand the concept of having comrades! And that's the reason why Fairy Tail is going to kick your asses!"_

"Lucy…" Natsu whispered to himself.

He had thought about the girl who was like a sister to him very often since the attacks after the parade. She'd had more Fairy Tail spirit than any member who had been there for his or her entire life. She was the very essence of what a Fairy Tail wizard was supposed to be.

 _And now Gray has found someone to replace her._

 _It's a disgrace to her memory!_

More and more tears fell the longer he sat at the foot of the huge tree. Soon enough, he saw a familiar shadow looming over him and could see an outstretched hand in his peripheral vision. "Come on. Let's go."

Pulling himself into his ball even tighter, he shook his head.

" _I refuse to do nothing while my friends are in trouble!"_

"Luuuu…cyyy…" he mumbled again, ignoring Gray's presence.

Gray crouched in front of the sniffling boy and looked at him with a concerned expression. "Natsu… Lana isn't a replacement for Lucy, I promise."

The Dragon Slayer shook his head and slowly lifted his head, his usually sharp vision blurred with tears. "That's what you say now!" he shouted. "But what about when you let in more and more people and suddenly we completely forget about everyone else? I don't want that to happen, dammit! I don't want to just distract myself and replace all of them until we forget. I don't want to forget!"

Gray drew in a sharp breath. "Na… Natsu…" His chin trembled as his mind became overly aware of how true Natsu's words could come to be. _Is that what I'm doing? Did I only say I'd talk to Natsu about it so that I can forget about everyone to make it stop hurting? I should know better than that! It_ doesn't _stop hurting – it just dulls over time. I've already been through it with Ur, so I should know better. I joined Fairy Tail because I needed somewhere to go, but it served as a distraction so I could stop thinking about Ur. How is this not the same thing? I don't think about her every day… Only when I feel useless. I don't want to forget about everyone in Fairy Tail!_

The ice mage looked at his feet. "I don't know."

Natsu's eyes widened in fear. "What do you mean, you don't know? You're supposed to say that they're not replacements, that we won't forget the old Fairy Tail."

"I wish I could say that for sure," Gray mumbled miserably.

The tiniest bit of control that Natsu had on his overwhelming emotions broke down with those eight words. Tears fell faster than before, and he couldn't stop them even when Gray shook his shoulder, frantically shouting his name. Gray started panicking as Natsu stopped responding. _He's in too deep with his thoughts._ The fire mage's breath was fast and uncontrollable, and he had started unconsciously trembling, rocking back and forth. Natsu's eyes were dilated in overwhelming terror.

Gray called out desperately for anyone who might be nearby, but no one was close enough to hear his cries for help. "Listen, Natsu, you've gotta stay here with me. Listen to my voice. Focus on it."

The panicking Dragon Slayer didn't reply. _Dammit!_ Gray cursed mentally.

"Natsu, calm down. Deep breaths. You'll be okay. You'll get through this, I promise." The Ice-Make wizard was on the verge of losing it, but he couldn't afford to lose control when the only person he had left was in the middle of a panic attack. "Listen to my voice. You'll be fine. Take a deep breath in. I'm gonna stay with you, alright? Hold on, Natsu. You'll be alright."

Natsu's breathing seemed to calm by the slightest fraction. Gray's own anxious heartbeat was out of control, but he repeated soothing phrases to the anxiety-ridden boy, hoping that if he repeated them enough times, he might be able to calm himself down as well. So, the dark-haired mage very gently and cautiously wrapped his arms around his former lover so as not to frighten him even more.

Gray lost track of time. He wasn't sure how long they sat there, but he was nearly positive that they sat there long enough to have missed his meeting with Lana. _Maybe we're not ready to move on. I'm sorry, Lana._

* * *

 _A/N: Okay. So that took longer than I anticipated to write. To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure where I was going to take this chapter until I got to the end. I apologise for how out of character they are - the only excuse I have is because of the trauma they've been through. I'm_ planning _on starting Chapter Five soon. Key word planning. Please leave a review! Thanks!_ _-Stephanie_


	5. Chapter 5

**If Fire Could Freeze, We'd Be Okay**

 **Five**

When the pair of broken mages went home to Natsu's cottage, they took the long way home to avoid the guild. Well, both wizards had been subconsciously avoiding the guild for weeks, but this time it was a conscious effort to stay as far away from the broken building as they could.

They had agreed after Natsu calmed down enough to have a conversation that they would both stay in his cottage to keep them safe from themselves from now on. After the recent events, neither Gray nor Natsu could promise with one hundred percent sincerity that he would not hurt himself. Gray figured that he was much less likely to do anything to harm himself if Natsu was around.

The path home that stayed more than five blocks away from the guild hall at all times added more than twenty minutes to the walk, but neither mage would complain. It was another minute of something to do, something to distract their thoughts.

At least, it was for Natsu. Gray was another story.

His thoughts wouldn't shut up. The silence between the wizards was eerie, which allowed the dead voices to speak. _"Gray-sama! Look at what Juvia made for Gray-sama!" "Gray! Put on some clothes!"_ Not once since the day when all went to hell had Gray unintentionally stripped. He wasn't sure if he physically could.

Physical abilities in mind, Gray's mind left the topic of dead comrades and drifted to magic. Ever since the reality of the situation hit him, he hadn't tried to use any magic. Honestly, he wasn't sure if he could even do a simple ice-make spell in his current mental state. When he first left Porlyusica's care, he had made a few make-shift ice packs for his injuries because the weight of the situation hadn't dawned on him – Gray had been convinced that it was a terrible dream and that Erza and Gramps and Lucy and everyone else in Fairy Tail would be alive when he woke. But then a week went by, and Gray and Natsu had smoked and drank in the broken guild hall, which is when Gray realised he probably didn't _want_ to use magic… maybe ever.

The same could probably be said for the Fire Dragon Slayer. Sure, he had lit Gray's cigarette, but the ice mage figured that, like Gray, Natsu was still trying to wake up from this nightmare when that happened. After Natsu had taken Gray to Porlyusica to check his injuries on the day when they drank and smoked together, they had silently agreed not to return to the guild. It was that day – that pain – that had solidified that this wasn't just a horrific nightmare and that it was, in fact, terrifying reality.

 _How on earth are we supposed to run a mage guild when neither of us can use our magic?_ Gray considered asking Natsu, but the pink-haired boy had finally forced himself to relax, and Gray wasn't about to backtrack any farther. They'd already fallen so far from where they were earlier today.

The dark-haired wizard considered _what_ had caused them to fall so far. Just that morning, they had convinced each other that the best way to honour Fairy Tail was to move on and rebuild. Natsu had seemed fine with the idea of a new member until Gray mentioned that she strongly resembled Lucy. Gray had felt a slight pang of pain at that reaction – although he and Natsu had been dating, he knew that Natsu had a major crush on Lucy at one point and that she had also liked the flame wizard. The reaction was proof that there were still strong feelings towards the Celestial Wizard even to the grave – what Gray wasn't sure of was whether those feelings were romantic or brotherly love. _I guess I'll never know._

Natsu had said that he didn't want to _replace_ anyone, and Gray hadn't been able to put up a persuasive argument that the new members would not be substitutes. The raven-haired boy hadn't been able to swear that they wouldn't be merely a way to forget about all of their former comrades.

Soon enough, the pair reached the small cottage on the outskirts of Magnolia. Natsu opened the door that he had forgotten to lock that morning, allowing Gray to follow him into the house.

The ice and fire mages fell onto the old sofa side-by-side in defeat. After a few more minutes of silence, Natsu whispered just barely loud enough for Gray to hear, "I'm sorry, Gray."

The raven-haired man blinked in surprise. He wasn't really all that surprised that his friend had apologised – in all reality, most of their conversations had been centred on apologies and guilt. Rather, he was amazed that Natsu had spoken to him at all after his recent breakdown.

"You don't need to apologise anymore," was the only thing that the ice-make mage replied.

Natsu forced a smile to keep his tears in – he'd had enough crying for one day. "I do have to, though. I totally ruined all… all of the progress I thought we made. I thought I was okay to start moving on. I'm sorry."

Gray took a deep breath to keep himself from lashing out and shouting that he was as much at fault as the Dragon Slayer was. "Stop apologising. We're just not ready yet. Neither of us is."

The pink-haired boy didn't seem pleased with that answer, but he accepted it, nonetheless. "So what happens now? I mean, you missed your meeting with _that girl,_ so what are you going to do now? Are you going to tell her that the formerly strong mages of the guild she wants to join are broken irreparably?"

Gray hadn't considered that. He knew that it wasn't a good idea for either of them to stay alone for long, but there was someone that he wanted to see.

"I don't know. I'm thinking about going to visit Lyon at Lamia Scale. It's been a while since we've talked." He released a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. "Anyways, neither of us has been out of this damned city in weeks."

"You've got a point, I guess."

"You should go somewhere as well. Get the hell out of this city for a few days," Gray suggested.

Natsu considered who he knew outside of the guild that no longer existed. _Well, the girls at Mermaid Heel hate guys, so no. I never really got to know anyone in Quatro Cerberus. I could follow Gray to Lamia Scale, but Lyon sort of despises my existence, and anyways, Gray probably wants to have some time with Lyon without me. There's Blue Pegasus…? Nope, nope, nope. I can't deal with that level of insanity in my current state. Jellal…? No. I can't bear to see_ him _after what happened to Erza._ For a second he entertained the idea of finding Cobra/Erik – whichever he was using – but decided against it due to the fact that they weren't close and that there was a chance that Jellal would be with him. _So that leaves Sabretooth. I guess I could stand to see Sting and Rogue._

"I guess I'll head to Sabretooth. When are you leaving?"

The ice mage shrugged his shoulders. "The sooner the better, I guess. Probably as soon as I get packed. Lamia Scale is just a few cities over, so if I leave in an hour or two, I can probably get there by nightfall if I take a train."

Natsu's stomach lurched at the thought of the moving death trap as he considered how long it would take to get to Sabretooth. As far as he knew, it would only take about three hours of walking to arrive at the guild. "I can leave whenever you do. It's only three, so as long as I leave before five, I can arrive by eight o'clock by foot."

Gray allowed himself to smile the smallest smile. _Maybe getting out of this city will do us well. Anyways, I haven't seen Lyon in a few months._ "Why don't you pack your things, and then you can head out."

"Alright. Will you be okay to pack your things by yourself?"

Gray's sad smile faded a bit into darkness. "I'll be fine," he promised.

Natsu knew that fine often didn't mean 'fine,' but he hadn't really gotten a chance to figure out what fine meant when Gray said it. He had been too locked up in his own head, so he decided that he had to trust Gray's judgement. "When will you be coming home? We should both arrive back here on the same day."

The black-haired wizard considered the question. "I'm not sure, if I'm going to be honest. For now, I'm going to assume I'll be gone until next Saturday – that's nine days. If anything changes, I'll send a letter, alright?"

Natsu nodded. "Sure."


	6. Chapter 6

**If Fire Could Freeze, We'd Be Okay**

 **Six**

About thirty minutes later, Natsu and Gray left the cottage in different directions – Natsu towards the Sabretooth guild hall, Gray towards his apartment and then the Magnolia train station.

The three-hour trek was too quiet and too lonely for Natsu's liking. After knowing Happy for years and hardly ever going anywhere without his company, Natsu felt incredibly uncomfortable in the eerie silence.

Soon enough, the forest landscape of the outskirts of Magnolia faded into open plains, which then turned into the first city on the way to Sabretooth. The town was quite small, having just a few shops and restaurants in downtown. A few merchants offered the Dragon Slayer free sample products and coupons, but he turned down every one of them – he just kept facing forwards, trying to get to Sabretooth and away from his own thoughts as quickly as he could.

After he exited the town, he was back in a forest much like the one outside of Magnolia. He trekked through the woods for about twenty minutes before discovering a small lake. Natsu disregarded the body of water and forced his feet to keep moving forward.

The guild complex that appeared on the horizon couldn't have come at a better time. Natsu was about to give up, admit he was lost, and succumb himself to his self-loathing thoughts when the large collection of buildings showed themselves.

The complex was bigger than Natsu thought it would be. He had been to the Sabretooth guild a few times before, but he had never really gotten a chance to _look_ at it. The building was tall – probably thrice the height of the old Fairy Tail guild hall. It appeared to be several smaller buildings connected at the sides and sitting on top of one another to make a huge, strangely pyramid-like shape. Behind it sat some tall mountains, and in the front area was a large statue of a sabretooth tiger.

After another ten minutes of walking, the fire mage was close enough to see that the guild appeared to be having some kind of get-together or celebration. All of the guild members were standing in small clusters around a bonfire in the front pavilion of the guild building. It seemed that almost everyone was smiling, laughing, and holding cups of what Natsu assumed to be alcoholic drinks.

Before Natsu had the time to scan the crowd for Sting and Rogue, he saw the Twin Dragons of Sabretooth jogging towards him, Lector and Frosh close behind.

"Natsu!" Sting shouted. "I thought I smelled you. What are ya doing here?"

Rogue didn't say anything – he just nodded in greeting.

The Fire Dragon Slayer forced a smile, reluctant to bring down the mood of the celebration that was clearly in progress. "I was just coming into town for a few days, so I figured I'd come see you guys."

"Sweet," the White Dragon Slayer exclaimed happily. "We're actually having our Autumn Tiger Festival tonight. You should join us!" The dark look in Sting's eyes did not go unnoticed by Natsu. It was one hundred percent clear that he had heard about the Fairy Tail incident, but the look said that they would talk later. "You can drop your bag on the front steps."

When the three returned to the festival and Natsu had dropped his bag, someone handed Natsu a red cup of liquid. Seeing Natsu's questioningly suspicious look, Rogue leaned over and smiled. "It's just beer. There's nothing weird in it." For some reason, it surprised the pink-haired boy that Rogue would say that so lightly – he didn't strike Natsu as the drinking type. _Oh, well._

Sting and Rogue disappeared soon after that, probably to go talk to some other guild members. The members of the guild welcomed Natsu in a way that was reminiscent of how Fairy Tail used to greet people. For some reason, that made it hurt even more.

However, this wasn't like Fairy Tail parties. Fairy Tail parties almost always included a heavily-intoxicated Cana draping herself someone – a fair bit of the time that was either Gray or Lucy – and offering to make out. This party didn't have Gajeel's nails-on-chalkboard awful singing or Mirajane's angelic humming. It didn't have random brawls amongst members. Natsu dared to allow himself to smile as he remembered that almost every Fairy Tail party he had ever been to had ended in a fight that involved everyone – usually Erza stopped the fight and sent everyone home once someone destroyed her slice of cake (a lot of the time, it was Gray or Natsu who did that).

But this party did have some aspects that were similar to Fairy Tail parties. There were people who were a bit _too_ drunk that were trying to hit on people that they had no chance with. Minerva and Yukino snuck off into the guild building not long after Natsu arrived, giggling secretively. Natsu felt a pang in his chest as he watched Rufus using ice magic to create ice cubes to go in his drink. It took all of Natsu's self-control to stop himself from lashing out at the Memory-Make mage for using Gray's magic.

The Fairy Tail mage had a few nice conversations, but most people who recognised him just apologised for what had happened to his guild. Orga had said that he was disappointed that he would never get a rematch with Laxus, and Natsu said that he too was saddened he would never get to spar with the Lightning Dragon Slayer again. Rufus also expressed his "deepest sympathies" about Fairy Tail. Each time someone told Natsu how bad they felt for him or that he would be in his or her prayers, the festival got harder and harder to bear.

Around eleven o'clock, guild members started heading back into the guild building towards their dormitories. Sting, Rogue, Lector, and Frosh found Natsu once most everyone had left. Had this been five weeks ago, Natsu simply would've said, "I'm staying here, 'kay?" But this wasn't five weeks ago, and saying that brought back too many memories of Lucy and Happy for him to deal with right now, so he nothing.

The friends stood in silence for a few seconds before Sting turned to his partner. The two looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, having a silent conversation. Then, Rogue smiled, waved to Natsu, and headed back toward the guild dorms, leaving the blond and pink-haired boys alone.

Once the group was inside of the guild, Sting explained, "Rogue figured he'd take Frosh and Lector back to the dorms. I figured you weren't here just for a casual drop-in, right?"

Natsu solemnly nodded.

"You can crash with me tonight. Come on, let's head inside – I'm getting cold."

The flame mage said nothing as he followed Sting inside the complex, grabbing his bag on the way inside.

* * *

Gray stepped off of the train in Margaret Town, shouldering his bag.

Lamia Scale was not very far from the train station, so Gray found it quickly. Although there was no mistaking the Lamia Scale guild crest, Gray almost thought that he was in the wrong place due to how eerily quiet it was. _Oh, right. This isn't Fairy Tail. Not all guilds are super loud and obnoxious._

With that in mind, he knocked on the front door before entering. If it were Fairy Tail, even if the doors were closed, just about anyone could come in without knocking and be welcomed like family. He wasn't sure how that worked with his peer's guild.

Lamia Scale's own canine-like Toby answered the door. "Ooon! Gray Fullbuster's here!" he shouted into the guild.

"Where's Lyon?" Gray snapped, not in the mood to deal with the dipshit standing before him. When the man with dog ears perched on the top of his head said nothing, Gray pushed his was past him, storming into the guild hall.

"Gray?" a formally familiar voice said. "What…" he trailed off, seeing right through his friend's brave façade.

The ebony-haired boy looked down in shame, realising that his brave face wasn't half as convincing as he'd believed. _Damn._

"Let's… go get a drink…" the elder man suggested cautiously as Gray allowed himself to be dragged out of the guild hall.

After walking in silence, the two reached a bar a few blocks away from the guild hall. Both men had ordered their beer of preference before either spoke to the other.

"Why are you here, Gray? You should be with Natsu," Lyon accused.

Gray shrugged and then said, "He's at Sabretooth visiting Sting and Rogue."

"Oh," Lyon replied quietly.

Seeing his friend's worried look that was clearly meant to keep himself from saying anything that could trigger Gray, the younger reminded Lyon, "You don't need to avoid it. I killed my friends. See? I can admit it." What Gray didn't say was that admitting that hurt worse than being stabbed in the heart a thousand times. He also didn't say that after saying it out loud, Gray wished he was dead even more than he did before.

"I'm sorry, Gray."

"Don't apologise. I came here to get out of Magnolia, so distract me. What has been going on here?"

Lyon furrowed his brow but continued to explain the recent events in Lamia Scale. "Well, I actually just returned from an S-Class job…"

Although Gray tried to listen to Lyon's words, his thoughts became too loud for him to focus on much of anything. With each passing second, Gray's desire to no longer exist became stronger. _That's why I'm not alone, right?_ the logical part of his brain reminded him.

 _Maybe I want to be alone, then._

And then Gray allowed himself to disappear from that moment in time and to relive the torture once again.

* * *

 _A/N: Okay. So originally, I had wanted this chapter and the previous chapter to be a single, long chapter. I guess I sort of felt like each of them arriving at their respective friends' guilds deserved its own chapter (and anyways, 5 &6 together would have been like 3,200 words, and the longest chapter so far was like 2,100). And I'm really excited that I didn't decide to kill off everyone in Fiore now, because if anyone has looked through my other One-Shots on here, you can see who my #1 OTP is (Gratsu actually falls in #2, but I felt like this story would work better because we know Fairy Tail better than Sabre). And anyways: Stingue aside, Lyon is always a good thing. And to those of you who have been trying to guess what Natsu and Gray did... I have that planned out (to be honest, that's a pretty big feat for me, because I plan as I write), and you should be ready. Soon._

 _I have one other important note about this story that I most likely should have put sooner: chronologically, it takes place in X794. However, in this story, the events of the Alvarez Empire arc HAVE NOT HAPPENED. As that arc is still being written and that some readers may not have read up to the most recent chapters (and that I don't keep as up-to-date with the manga as I should), the events of the Alvarez Empire have been disregarded for the sake of the story (that sort of makes me sad because Zeref! and Natsu's past, but I don't want to be inaccurate with the arc events). However, all events until the end of the Avatar arc are included. So, yes, (spoiler warning for Tartaros/Avatar) Gray does have Ice Devil Slayer magic, and, yes, he did go to and return from Avatar (I screamed when I read the Avatar arc because oh my god so many Gratsu moments)._

 _That was a long announcements thing, but there is your two-chapters-one-night update. I think I might start on chapter seven, but y'know, it's ten at night where I am, so you never know. -Stephanie (oh my god that was like a 400 word announcement thing)_

 _EDIT 2 May 2016: So it's Fairy Tail Angst Week. Although I'm not going to submit anything on Tumblr, I have decided that, as Thursday is "Past," that would be a good time to release Chapter Seven. I think I'll be finished with it before then, but I feel that is when it will be most appropriate. (PS - low key hint about the chapter)_


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